


LtFAD Bonus Content

by raemanzu, spica_tea



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 08:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3803665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raemanzu/pseuds/raemanzu, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spica_tea/pseuds/spica_tea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A place to put things written for Live To Fight Another Day that don't make it into the canon, such as deleted scenes and the April Fools Day special.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. April Fools Day Special Chapter

**Author's Note:**

> This was posted on April 1st, 2015, as Chapter 20 of LtFAD. Probably the most fun we've ever had on April Fools Day! The notes at the end read "Hey, thanks for reading! I hope this didn't upset anyone too badly :P Also the quality of this prank is not as great as it could have been if I hadn't thought of it on such short notice (aka the morning of April Fools Day). Regular updates will resume as soon as the real chapter 20 is edited :P Thank you all for your continued support and here's to some much better writing than this in the future, thank goodness." Don't worry, Rae has saved all your beautiful comments from the original posting!

            Rex sat in the co-pilot’s chair, huddled in the poncho as they came out of hyperspace. The droid kept the ship cold everywhere but Rex’s quarters, but after days of being escorted back and forth only once a day from the showers and laundry, he was all too glad to sit shivering in the cockpit when the droid gave him permission. His new black shirt was too thin to keep him very warm by itself, but at least he had an outfit and boots that fit well, as well as a few toiletries to take off the unkempt edge.

            So far the droid seemed uninterested in harming him, and even its droning voice was better company sometimes than the blank walls of Rex’s quarters. In his loneliest moments, Rex even caught himself thinking of TL-89 as a friend.

            “Our next destination?” Rex asked, as the hyperspace distortions began to clear.  

            “Yes,” said TL-89, but no sooner had the star system appeared on the viewscreen, Rex saw also the close glittering flashes of a naval battle—their little ship was hit so hard that Rex found himself flung from his seat and smashed against the droid’s stiff, metal body.

            “Get us out of here!” Rex yelled as soon as he caught his breath—the droid shoved him off its lap unceremoniously and worked the controls.

            “Probability of survival without aid is less than four hundred seventy—”

            Rex hauled himself back up into the co-pilot’s seat amid the ship’s careening and slammed the communicator. “Separatist navy, we require assistance! Do not fire on us, repeat—”

            The droid kicked Rex’s knee so hard Rex yowled and clutched at it, wondering if it was broken. 

            “We will seek aid from the Republic. I refuse to return to the Separatist Alliance.”

            TL-89 yanked the ship around.

            “I’m supposed to be DEAD!” Rex yelled, but the droid was already headed for the main hangar of the nearest destroyer. Republic fighters were swarming out of it and they let loose a heavy rain of fire. Seeing his life flash before his eyes, Rex reached out, and like in a dream the ship seemed to turn and spin in an impossible evasive dive before he’d even wrenched the controls out of the droid’s grip.

            Somehow, the ship became an extension of his body. A thrill coursed through his every nerve as they skidded into the hangar and crashed into another fighter, bursting into flames. The console erupted in an explosion of heat that blew Rex back and clanged his head against metal and made his skull ring like a gong.

            He couldn’t move. The next thing he knew, the ship seemed to coalesce under him, and shift. The world was a blur of blinding light and smoke that burned his throat. Then it slowly cleared, and he realized… TL-89 was carrying him, out of the ship, into the hangar.

            He was curled up in the droid’s blocky arms like a child. For a moment, a pathetic sense of gratitude and loneliness welled up in him. This was his life now, a clone so starved for love he thought he could feel it from a droid. But maybe TL-89 wasn’t so unfeeling.

            “Why?” Rex croaked. “Why are you saving me…?”

            “Rex?” A clone voice cried out weakly. Then, louder. “Put him down, you ugly scug!”

            Rex turned his head and saw—but it couldn’t be. He tried to focus his eyes on the goldenrod markings. “Cody?”

            Cody was pointing his rifle at the droid, a look of fear and hatred and disbelief on his face, all at once. “I got him. Don’t…  _move_.”

            Somehow, even from that distance, Rex could see Cody’s finger start to pull the trigger.

            “Cody, NO!” he yelled, and without knowing what he was doing, he threw his arms forward desperately, as if he could push the gun aside. The blaster bolt flew wide and Cody stared in utter shock as Rex climbed down from droid’s arms.

            “Does not compute,” TL-89 said softly. “You have only ever displayed disdain for me. I would never have predicted…..”

            “Yeah, well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Rex said breathlessly, and ran as well as he could with his injured knee to throw his arms around Cody, who stood stiffly at first, then pushed away.

            “I….” Cody laughed nervously, eyes wide and wet as he took a step back. “I don’t… understand….”

            “I’m sorry,” Rex said immediately, realizing Cody was freaked out. “I’ll explain everything. The—the droid saved me—that’s why I’m still alive.” He couldn’t help himself from reaching for Cody again. “It’s so good to see you.”

            Cody hugged him back this time, so tight Rex thought he was going to suffocate. This time he was the one not wearing any armor.

            “It’s really you?” Cody stared into his eyes as soon as Rex could bear to let go of him. “But… why… how did you… you pushed off my aim from all the way over there. It can’t be that you’re a… a….”

            “A Jedi,” said a low, crackly, sinister voice. “Yes… the clone who became a Jedi. What a striking story. But you are far from a Jedi, clone. It was I who caused your creation, and it is I who must destroy you now that you have defied me and developed this talent as a consequence. A mere clone is not worthy to wield the Force… and there can be only two. I have already chosen my ultimate apprentice.”

            Cody and Rex and TL-89 turned to see a dark hooded figure emerge from the smoke coming off TL-89’s wrecked ship. Rex wished for the millionth time that he had his pistols, but Cody, good old faithful Cody, stepped forward with rifle in hand to protect him, as did TL-89.

            “The clone is mine,” TL-89 droned.

            “You won’t touch him,” Cody growled. “Whoever you are.”

            “No?” The sinister voice chuckled, and aged hands reached up to pull back the hood. “Perhaps I won’t need to.”

            “Supreme Chancellor?” Cody gasped.

            “Commander Cody.” Palpatine smiled evilly. “Execute Order Sixty-Six.”

            Rex didn’t even have time to react. All he had time for was a quick glimpse of the way Cody’s face went blank and his rifle swung toward him before Cody shot him and he died.

….

            Cody didn’t feel a thing. He stared down at the Jedi clone lying on the hangar floor in front of him, dead from a smoking hole in the head. Rex. Who was Rex?

            The droid let out a terrible electronic wail. Cody would have eliminated it, but it dropped its gun and ceased to register as a threat. The droid knelt by Rex and gathered the fallen warrior in its arms, its squashed head bent over the poor soldier, its frame shuddering in a strange way. It was almost as if… but no, Cody thought distantly. Droids couldn’t cry.

            He did feel a burning in his own eyes. Probably from the smoke. Tears rolled down his cheeks and fell at his feet into a shining puddle as the Chancellor laughed. Cody’s knees gave out, and once he had fallen, he could see the droid’s tears falling too, right onto Rex’s peaceful, dead face.

            Impossible. All of it was impossible. A pain began to gather in his chest. “What have I done,” Cody heard himself say, and knew the agony of guilt and horror was only just beginning to creep into his shattered heart.

            “You killed him,” TL-89 droned softly. “Does not compute. He loved you, and you killed him. Ungrateful organic. Humans are the worst,” it sobbed. “He saved my life. My… special… human….” Tears leaked out of the shining white optics that served as its eyes. It  was holding Rex so close that Rex’s lips and its mouth grill were touching. Somehow, the hole in Rex’s head seemed to be closing. It must have been a trick of the light.

            “I loved him too!” Cody suddenly screamed, curling into a ball. “I don’t understand…! Why did I do it?!”

            “This is the ultimate end of your purpose, Cody,” Palpatine said in an amused tone of voice. “And of all clones. You were all programmed to kill the Jedi. And soon you will be renowned as the brave clone who killed Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

            “NOOOO!!” Cody screamed in rage and pain, and staggered to his feet, and tried to shoot the Chancellor, but the evil Sith caught the blaster bolts in his hand and they fizzled away like an ice cube on a hot barbecue.

            “It is useless to resist.”

            “Oh yeah?” a voice gasped weakly behind Cody.

            For the second time in his life, Cody looked at a Rex who was alive when he was supposed to be dead. The hole in his head was covered in shiny clingy droid tears, and was disappearing rapidly. The droid was even more amazing, though. The droid was no longer a droid at all. The metal was burning away with a blinding sparkle into a radiant angelic being with long purple tresses and golden skin and two really soft looking ebony wings coming out of her back.

            “You’re a woman?!” Cody blurted.

            “I’m an angel,” said the woman-who-was-no-longer-a-droid. Her voice was so melodious now, not at all like the droid’s ugly monotone.  And she had curves in all the right places. Cody had never seen such a pleasantly curvy angel before.

            Apparently, neither had Rex. “Kriff, you’re beautiful,” he said in wonder, sitting on the floor and staring up at her radiance. “And you saved my life.”

            “I am bonded to your soul, now, my special human,” said the angel. “You have released me from the witch’s curse by showing me true love, and thus provoking true love from me. My angelic tears have healed you. Together, we will be the most powerful heterosexual couple in the universe. It is your destiny.”

            Rex looked at Cody with regret. “It’s my destiny, Cody. I’m sorry.”

            “I would have saved you if I had healing tears!” Cody cried. “Anyway, I thought we were brothers! I thought our friendship meant more than this!”

            “But it’s my destiny.”

            “Snap out of it!” Cody punched Rex in the shoulder, right where it hurts.

            “AAGh!” Rex hissed. “What was that for?!” But he didn’t look quite so awestruck as before.  Maybe it was because his face was screwed up in pain.

            “If we’re supposed to just submit to our destiny, then  _I_  would have to just give in and shoot General Kenobi!” Cody shook Rex. “That makes no sense! I won’t let that happen! And I know you don’t want to let that happen either! Or turn your back on me! We can choose our own destiny, Rex! Don’t you believe that?!”

            “Well… it depends,” Rex said, grimacing. “But I guess you’re right. I don’t know what came over me.”

            “Destiny,” said the angel impatiently. “It’s called destiny. And it is useless to resist.”

            “Yeah, you know where I’ve heard that before?” Cody pointed his gun at where Palpatine had been watching their little exchange.

            “Do I have to repeat myself?” Palpatine sighed. “Cody, execute Order—”

            “OH NO YOU DON’T!” Rex roared, and Force-threw the entire burning ship at the evil Chancellor. “TL-89, if you really love me then you’ll help me destroy the Chancellor! He’s the one who started the entire war! Don’t you remember what it was like being a droid, having to follow orders?! Why would you give up slavery to the Separatists for slavery to some stupid notion of destiny? We can  _all_  work together!”

            “That is logical,” TL-89 said in a somehow more melodious drone, flashing white eyes at Rex. “Let us destroy the Sith.”

            “You can’t destroy  _me_ ,” Palpatine cackled, throwing the ship back at them. Rex pushed Cody out of the way, and TL-89 made a protective bubble around them with her angelic powers. “You really think your childish beginner’s tricks with the Force will be a match for my years of experience? Two clones and a droid will never be enough to defeat me, even if one of them is some Force-sensitive fluke.”

            “What about two clones, a droid, and two Jedi Masters?” A delightfully sassy voice cut through the smoldering wreckage.

            Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker suddenly appeared, flipping through the air to land in dynamic poses between the Chancellor and TL-89’s bubble.

            “And two Padawans!” Another delightfully sassy voice cried out.

            “It’s Commander Tano!” Rex cried, jumping to his feet and stepping outside of TL-89’s shiny pink bubble. “What are you doing here? I thought you left the Jedi Order.”

            “Nice to see you, Rex,” Ahsoka said as she flipped down from somewhere in the ceiling, and tossed him a lightsaber. “Looks like you’ve got a lot of explaining to do, too.”

            Rex caught the lightsaber and it felt nearly alive in his hand. He turned it on and a rush of power filled his body like this was meant to be.

            “Huh,” he said, a little overwhelmed at all the plot twists happening in his life all of a sudden.

            “Palpatine!” Anakin growled, in his growliest voice. “ _What_  are you  _doing_  here?  _Explain this!_ ”

            It was nice to see that dark look turned toward someone else, Rex thought.

            “Ah, my boy,” the Chancellor said in his sleaziest politican voice. “All will be explained in due time. This clone, you see, is a traitor. I seem to recall that this was already established as the reason for his being decommissioned.”

            “It’s too late, Sidious,” Obi-Wan said, doing that cool pose with the two fingers lined up with his lightsaber. “We saw and heard everything. As I recall, you seem to have foolishly implicated yourself in a plot to destroy the Jedi, using the clone army. I’m not sure how that’s going to work, but judging by the ease with which you turned Cody against Rex—”

            “EXECUTE ORDER SIXTY-SIX!!!” shrieked Sidious, shooting Force-lightning at Obi-Wan and Anakin. Rex pulled the gun from Cody’s hands as soon as he heard the word  _order_  and sliced it in half with his lightsaber.

            “TL-89, hold Cody and keep him from hurting anyone!” Rex commanded, before jumping into the fray. He and Ahsoka jumped over their lightning-ridden masters and tried to attack, but Sidious swatted them aside with the Force without even looking at them.

            “You see?” the Chancellor cackled. “But I don’t even need to use the Force. We are on a ship where the clones vastly outnumber the Jedi on board. All I have to do is give the order over the shipwide comm and your executioners will flood this hangar. There will be no escape.”

            “I TRUSTED YOU!” Anakin yelled, charging at Sidious with his lightsaber before being struck down in another sparking heap by that blasted Force lightning. So unfair.

            “More’s the pity. I suppose it’s time to end this game,” sighed Palpatine.

            “Unfortunately for you,” said a smoker’s voice, “I just sealed this hangar off from the rest of the ship, and disabled all communication within the ship.”

            Rex, who had been trying to sneak up behind Palps, started at that voice. “Echo? What are you doing here?”

            “Deus Ex Machina,” said Echo. “I’m a cyborg. I know things. And now I’m going to deactivate the forcefields keeping the vacuum of space at bay. I’m sorry I couldn’t find a better way to stop the conspiracy, Rex. But at least most of the army and the Jedi will survive… even if we will not.”

            “Wait—Echo—!!” everyone yelled, but it was too late.

            The vacuum of space sucked them all out the open hangar door above, and Sidious, try as he might to Force-pull himself to safety like an ugly robed toad swimming upstream, was foiled in his efforts by the swinging sabers of four warriors of the light (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, and Ahsoka), who managed to cut away anything he tried to grab hold of.

            Anakin chopped him into little bits in a fit of rage, but then they were out in the coldness of space, and Obi-Wan was holding him in his arms, silently telling him to stop, to surrender, to hold on. Rex somehow ended up next to Cody and clung to him, knowing that in just a few seconds they would both be dead. But at least they’d gotten to see each other again.

            “Rex,” Anakin said. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

            But sound doesn’t carry in the vacuum of space, so Rex never heard the apology.

             _At least all the rest of my brothers are gonna make it_ , Rex thought.  _At least I got to see Cody again_. But it was a bittersweet victory. The nightmares had still come true, in a way… he had gotten General Skywalker and Commander Tano and General Kenobi killed just the same.

             _And Echo_ , he thought, as Echo and his squad of commandos drifted into his quickly shrinking field of vision, like toy soldiers floating in a bathtub.

            They all drifted through space, freezing slowly into icy statues.

            The End.

            Or….

            They would have, if not for TL-89’s angelic bubble of protection!

            The angel pulled them all close in a warm tingly group hug and flew them over to the viewport of the bridge where for some reason Jesse and Kix were hanging out. Through a series of gestures and hand signals Rex managed to explain what was going on, more or less, and a few minutes later they were all back inside the ship.

            “I can’t believe you’re back,” Kix said. “How did you survive?”

            “I have thwarted destiny,” TL-89 said, her radiant face seeming in a trance. “I am the most powerful being in the galaxy.”

            “Um… it’s a long story,” Rex said awkwardly, as his space angel wife of destiny tried to pull him into an embrace. He held onto Cody’s shoulder stubbornly. “Droid, look, I’m grateful that you saved all of our lives… really. But… I can’t be in love with you. It’s not really the way I’m wired and anyway… I already have a family.”

            “I know,” TL-89 said in a morose, mysterious sigh. “That is why I said I have thwarted destiny. I have resolved to break our soul bond, and wander the cosmos alone once again. Farewell, my sweet human. And thank you.”

            “Oh,” Rex said with enormous relief. “Well… good luck.”

            “Become a great Jedi Knight. Perhaps someday we will meet again… and you will call me Droid, in that affectionate grumble, for old time’s sake.”

            “Maybe,” Rex said. Anything was possible, if he had suddenly become a Jedi.

            “And then we will kiss under the moonlight—”

            “I think I’m going to need a lot of time to process this,” Cody said faintly, pulling Rex away from where the droid—sorry, angel—continued monologueing

            “You’re telling me,” Rex laughed.

            “Rex,” Anakin said, prying himself away from an intense conversation with Ahsoka and taking him by the shoulders. “I’m so… so sorry that I didn’t believe you. I… I treated you like—”

            “It’s in the past, General,” Rex said abruptly, overwhelmed. “The important thing is that… we’re all safe, now.”

            “Right.” Anakin sighed. “Well… I owe you one.”

            “We can hash out our debts of honor later,” Obi-Wan said. “Might I suggest a nice long shower and nap for all of us? Perhaps a stop at the nearest space station for a real meal?”

            “That sounds perfect,” Ahsoka said.

            “Yeah,” Rex said, although none of that mattered to him much just now. Looking around at all the familiar faces, he was just glad to have finally come home.

            The End OF LTFAD FOREVERRRRR (j/k)


	2. Deleted Scene: Rex "Lies" to Anakin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The way LTFAD is written now, Rex only finds out after reading a note from Anakin that Anakin and Echo conspired to give him a chance at surviving his suicide mission. But when we originally plotted Chapter 12, Anakin told Rex privately before Rex left. We decided to change the scene to what it is now, because it lent more weight to Rex's goodbye to Cody and the sense of loss, if he thought he had no way out of dying until after he had already left. Still, the deleted version has the interesting dilemma of Rex facing Anakin's ultimatum in person and trying to respond on the spot.
> 
> It picks up where the chapter leaves off, at _"Well, it was the least I could do.” Skywalker folded his arms...._

            “Which is why it’s _not_ all I’m doing.”

            “Sir?”

            Skywalker was smiling a little when he turned around. He kept his voice low, even though the room was soundproof. “There’s a chance for you to survive this mission after all.”

            “What? General… what would be the point? I’d rather—”

            “I can’t just let them kill you without at least giving you a chance!” Skywalker said fiercely. “So here’s the plan, okay?”

            A mixture of fear and hope exploded in his gut. “You mean… you know… about—”

            “I didn’t know what reconditioning meant,” Skywalker huffed, arms folded. “Not until Echo told me. But now I do, and I’m not going to let you die in disgrace. You’re worth more than that.”

            “But… how?” Rex was amazed—and a little worried—at how the General was sticking his neck out for him, let alone what a risk Echo had taken in approaching Skywalker about this. “Sir, I _can’t_ endanger this mission as well.”

            “You won’t be endangering it at all! And I’ll be honest—there’s still a _high_ risk that you won’t make it out alive, but I have to give you a fighting chance. You’ve made it out of worse situations. I’m hoping your luck will hold out one more time.”

            “But even if I survive, General, there would be no point.” Rex looked up at him cautiously, not wanting to seem ungrateful. “I would just be sent to Kamino a little later than before.”

            “Not if everyone thinks you died already! Not if you disappear behind enemy lines.”

            “But,” Rex struggled, “you’re not suggesting….”

            “You bet I’m suggesting it, Rex. You’re _going_ to live, and you’re going to leave the army.” Skywalker stared at him with an expression that Rex didn’t dare argue with. Then it eased up a bit. “Who knows, maybe someday, when you have a new name and a new life, we’ll meet again after the war is won. Maybe I’ll never know if you survive. But I can’t just let you walk to your own execution.”

            Rex sighed tightly. All the training and experience of his life was reeling at the fact that the General was ordering him to defect. But he couldn’t stop the hope that was rising in him, and the painful understanding that it could still be in vain. If he could live, there was still a chance for him to help stop the Chancellor. “What’s the plan, then?”

            “Echo has a contact who can come pick you up after the ship explodes. All you have to do is use your jetpack to get clear of the blast, and activate a beacon that will lead his ship to you. He should get there long before any separatists even know the ship has been destroyed.”

            “And then what, sir?”

            “And then you find a new identity and stay far away from Republic space. You won’t go trying to be a hero, and you _especially_ will not go looking for any more evidence against the Chancellor, or act against him in any way!” Skywalker’s voice was rising in pained fervency. “That is my _one condition_ for doing this. You have to promise me, right now, that you aren’t going to waste this second chance by chasing conspiracies!”

            Rex stared back into his eyes, coldly certain that his second chance was ending before it had even begun. Skywalker would almost certainly be able to tell he was lying. He didn’t know which would be better—to tell the truth, and be refused, or to lie and be detected. Either way, Skywalker would be ashamed of him. He had to take the risk; if his intention hadn’t been sensed already.

            “I promise you, sir,” Rex said in a quiet, steady voice. “I will not waste this chance you are giving me. I won’t risk detection by trying to contact you from Separatist space. I won’t speak of the Chancellor to our enemies. I will remain loyal to the Republic, to my last breath.”

            It was all true. Skywalker stared back at him, looking tense, weary—feelings Rex knew all too well lately. Truly, the depths of the General’s care startled him. If only Skywalker’s attachment to the Chancellor wasn’t so blinding, Rex might have had a hope at saving him.

            He didn’t want to leave the General in Palpatine’s hands, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He had to let go and make the best of this last gesture of friendship.

            Skywalker’s face relaxed a little and he turned away. “I’ll make sure you have everything you need once we rendezvous with Obi-Wan. And Rex… don’t tell anyone else about this plan. All anyone else can know is that you’ve chosen to die honorably on this mission instead of go in for reconditioning. That’s not negotiable.”

            “I understand, sir.” Rex breathed a bit easier, amazed the General hadn’t sensed his lying and rebuked him.

            Skywalker opened the door.

            “General,” Rex blurted, and Skywalker paused. “Thank you, sir. It… means a lot to me, that you would do this.”

            Skywalker sighed. “I’ll never find a better Captain,” he said dully, and walked out without looking at him again.


End file.
